SIYE Time:21:48 on 10th December 2024 SIYE Login: no | | |
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Category: Post-DH/AB
Characters:None
Genres: Romance
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: PG
Reviews: 22
Summary: Harry Ron and Hermione head back to Gryffindor Tower for some well deserved rest. However, a simple and powerful reunion awaits for Harry and Ginny.
Hitcount: Story Total: 9491
Disclaimer: Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R. Note the opinions in this story are my own and in no way represent the owners of this site. This story subject to copyright law under transformative use. No compensation is made for this work.
Author's Notes: This is meant to follow the last chapter in The Deathly Hallows, before the epiloge. Hope you enjoy it.
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It was over. Harry’s four-poster bed called to him like an old friend and he was, more than willingly, ready to oblige. Sounds of mirth drifted up through the war-torn castle as Harry, Ron, and Hermione slowly made their way back to Gryffindor Tower. An inexplicable warmth and peace began to creep through Harry as he listened to the soft hum of his best friends voices. But exhaustion was beginning to take over him and he longed for the warmth of his old bed.
Soon enough he found himself in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady who was already well into her celebrations with, what seemed like, every portrait in the castle.
“Ugh damn! The password.” Ron groaned.
“As if you three need one!” chortled a red-faced lady, “Long live Harry Potter!” and she swung forward to admit them.
And like a miracle there was Gryffindor common room, as warm and welcoming as ever. With its squishy armchairs and tapestries, as well as, miraculously, a pleasantly crackling fire. Ron quickly threw himself into his favorite chair and massaged his eyelids as Hermione looked on affectionately. She quickly conjured up three goblets.
“Better make it two, I can’t remember when I’ve been so tired.” Harry yawned.
“Why?” mumbled Ron, “Rough day?”
But as soon as the smile had risen in his face it seemed to flicker away. His jaw became rigid and he quickly began an effort to tie his hands into knots. Now that they were finally settling down, the enormity of the losses they had suffered that night seemed to take all of the air out of the room. Hermione gave Harry a fleeting look and hurried over to Ron, tears brimming in her eyes. She crouched down on the floor in front of him and pulled his hands apart. Taking them in her own she looked up at him but Ron wouldn’t take his eyes off of his knees. Harry’s heart went out to his best friends, but he knew he wouldn’t be needed here. So, slowly, he slipped away toward the stairs.
Solemnly he trekked the familiar path up the stone steps to the boy’s dormitories. He numbly pulled back the sheets on his old bed and hardly noticed kicking off his shoe and shaking off his jacket. But as Harry lay on his back looking up into his four-poster, his entire body began to ache. The dread and weight of what had transpired that night was beginning to rise in his chest and his eyes begin to burn. So many: Mad-Eye, Hedwig, Dobby, Fred, Remus, Tonks, Cedric, his parents, Dumbledore, Sirius, even Snape. The warm sunrise seemed to mock Harry as the full scope of his losses threatened to consume him into darkness. The only place he knew to be home was in ruins beneath him and all those around him had been devastated. Having so recently and abruptly faced his own mortality, Harry was now keenly aware of his body. Every wound pained him; every bump throbbed. His mind felt dull and saturated. It was guilt and grief that even out-weighed his jubilation over his recent victory. For even that, inexplicably, left him feeling hollow and alien. He couldn’t have fallen asleep even if he wanted to. This night, this world, everything Harry knew or had every experienced was all of the sudden just too much.
Harry started as he heard the door open and quickly pretended to sleep, hoping his unknown guest would leave him in peace and try again later. But they weren’t leaving. Anger began to swell in his stomach until he suddenly detected a flowery scent in the air. Instantly his bones became lead and he dared to turn his head.
There was Ginny. Still showing the hallmarks of battle as well as the shadow of grief. But as disheveled and pained as she was, Harry couldn’t help but savor how beautiful she still looked.
“Hungry?” she said in a husky voice that told Harry she had been crying.
“A little.” He admitted and he took the sandwich that she offered gratefully, propping himself up against his headboard.
And as he ravenously bit into it, he was determined to look anywhere but Ginny as she silently waited for him to speak. However no words came. Her brilliant brown eyes pierced into his heart and seemed to pull at every emotion he was trying so desperately to suppress. As if she knew that at that very moment his soul was wailing for escape. Without even trying, she was breaking down every defense Harry could throw at her just by being near him. He shut his eyes to compose himself when he felt the mattress sink a little as Ginny sat down facing him. Not saying anything, not demanding anything from him, just waiting.
Harry’s mind reeled, searching for something to say, something to make it better. Anything. Words of comfort, an explanation, reassurance, but all that came was emotion. Every time he would try, his fears and demons would flood out of every corner of his memory. It was becoming overwhelming and he wasn’t sure if he could be with her much longer. Afraid he might burst if he was to look into her soft brown eyes again. He kept opening his mouth to speak but the words were getting caught in his throat.
Ginny kept her eyes on him as she raised her hand to touch his face, first brushing his hair out of his eyes. The warmth of her touch was overpowering and hot tears began silently pouring out of his eyes. As if seventeen years of pain decided now was the time to fight its way out of him. He let his face fall into her hand and she caught it and raised it to her own. Her eyes were shining with tears as well but still she did not speak.
Ginny. The one who dug to Harry’s very heart and soul. The one whose dot he had watched for months. Harry was safe with her, human with her. Ginny would not recoil from him or let him fall away or make him explain….
“Ginny, I —“
And as if saying her name took the last bit of himself, he broke and succumbed to the trauma and worry that had been thrust upon him like a yoke since the day he was marked. Instantly, Ginny moved to him and took his sunken head into her arms. And Harry let himself go, trembling and crying into her embrace. Pulling Ginny tighter and tighter to him, feeling like he would spin off into oblivion if he let her go. And Ginny kept him. She caressed his heaving body, keeping him tightly, and kissed his contorted, sweaty brow.
And Harry cried. He cried for all those who were cut down around him, for the dead, for the wounded and the distraught. He cried for his lost childhood, for his years of torment with the Dursley’s and his cursed years as a wizard. He cried for Ted and the life he faced without his parents. He cried for Ginny and what he had knowingly put her through. He cried for his obligation and exhaustion. For his joy, pain, relief, sorrow, uncertainty, terror and elation. Need and love flowed between the two of them as Harry cried until he couldn’t anymore and just lay shaking in her arms.
“What do I do now Ginny?” Harry finally croaked. “It’s over. Done. Voldermort has had a hold on my whole life. Dictating every decision, every plan I’ve ever made. Making me what I am, good and bad. I don’t think I know what to be without it. Where do I go from here? Who am I now?”
Harry propped himself up again and looked at Ginny. Almost immediately he regretted confessing it. After all she had been through, all she lost, he looked away in shame desperately hoping to suddenly sink through the floor. But like the angel she was, Ginny took his hands. Such tenderness and security flowed through her touch that Harry felt a surge of courage and dared to look up at her.
“Harry. You are who ever you choose to be. The good, bad, and what happened here tonight has all brought you to this moment. This struggle, these- sacrifices. It was all for tomorrow. And the tomorrow that we are going to wake up to is a whole new world. A better one. That’s what we all built here tonight; and that’s what we’ll share and remember tomorrow.”
A warm drop of hope fell into his heart and began to pulse through his blood. He sighed, and as he did he felt that draught of sleepiness take over his body again. Harry tried to shake it off as he ran Ginny’s hands through his. Running his fingertips over her palms and knuckles before entwining his fingers with hers. Savoring the tranquility he felt with her
“Get some sleep Harry. I think you’ve earned it.”
But as Ginny got up to leave Harry tightened his grip. “No! I — er — I just…” he faltered, fearing he had acted too boldly. “Ginny could you just — just stay with me?”
A smile crept out of the side of her mouth as she reached up and took off his glasses for him. “’Till you tell me to go.”
Gratefully he pulled her to him as they lay down together, trying desperately to convey all the love he could as he wrapped himself around her. He nuzzled himself in her hair and the back of her neck, and took a deep and lasting breath as sleep began to take over. But what he had to confess wouldn’t wait. Carefully he lifted his head and placed his lips against her ear. He felt her breathe in deeply as he carefully confessed.
“Ginny, this new world you speak of. The only way I’d want to start it is by waking up next to you. Whatever I am. Whatever I will be. I will always be yours.”
And as he kissed her ear he felt her quiver a little underneath him as she exhaled and buried herself deeper in his arms. She took his hand off her stomach and kissed his palm. By now Harry’s exhaustion was too much and he squeezed her one last time before drifting into a deep and dreamless sleep. Because now, it seemed, his reality was far better than anything he could dream up. For Harry Potter finally had a free, unencumbered, and glorious tomorrow.
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